Jeremy Paxman: Well, how do you have any authority to talk about politics then?

Russell Brand: Well, I don’t get my authority from this pre-existing paradigm which is quite narrow and only serves a few people. I look elsewhere for alternatives that might be of service to humanity. Alternative means alternative political systems.

Jeremy Paxman: They being?

Russell Brand: Well, I’ve not invented it yet, Jeremy. I had to do a magazine last week. I’ve had a lot on my plate. But I say—but here’s the thing that you shouldn’t do: shouldn’t destroy the planet, shouldn’t create massive economic disparity, shouldn’t ignore the needs of the people. The burden of proof is on the people with the power, not people who like doing a magazine for a novelty.

Jeremy Paxman: How do you imagine that people get power?

Russell Brand: Well, I imagine there are sort of hierarchical systems that have been preserved through generations—

Jeremy Paxman: They get power by being voted in. That’s how they get it.

RUSSELLBRAND: Well, I don’t think it’s working very well, Jeremy, given that the planet is being destroyed, given that there is economic disparity of a huge degree. What you’re saying, there’s no alternative. There’s no alternative, just this system.

Jeremy Paxman: No, I’m not saying that. I’m saying—

Russell Brand: Brilliant.

Jeremy Paxman: —if you can’t be asked to vote, why should we be asked to listen to your political point of view?

Russell Brand: You don’t have to listen to my political point of view. But it’s not that I’m not voting out of apathy. I’m not voting out of absolute indifference and weariness and exhaustion from the lies, treachery, deceit of the political class that has been going on for generations now and which has now reached fever pitch, where we have a disenfranchised, disillusioned, despondent underclass that are not being represented by that political system. So, voting for it is tacit complicity with that system, and that’s not something I’m offering up.

Jeremy Paxman: Why don’t you change it then?

Russell Brand: I’m trying to.

I touch on the problems of large animal charities ignoring the solution to animal “cruelty” and more importantly the solution to abolishing animal use (Veganism), and I expand on a topic I broached last week about the ecological disaster that is animal agriculture and its contribution to species extinction and climate change and how green groups ignore its contribution and why, and I touch on a number of diverse miscellaneous issues.

This 2nd podcast is again a tad long (approx 45 minutes) but I think you might find it interesting. Episode 3 will (hopefully) be in the next 2 or 3 weeks if time permits (I’m very busy till the new year).